Jason Hong's Confabulations

Bill Buxton has a YouTube channel with some amazing videos of old sketch-based systems, it's a great resource. Thanks to Gabe Johnson for pointing me to these. http://www.youtube.com/user/wasbuxton

I posted a new article on Communications of the ACM's web site about the increasing ridiculousness of stricter password policies .

I've written up a summary of a recent NSF workshop on improving computer science research between the US and China .

Larry Tesler gave a fantastic talk at CHI for his Lifetime Practice award . He presented a summary of his work in helping to develop the modern GUI, and focused specifically on modeless interactions and cut-copy-paste. It was really fascinating listening to all of the subtle issues and design challenges in something that we now take for granted. One example that really struck home was a description of how modes worked in Engelbart's NLS system . To delete a word, first you might hit "d" to put the system into delete mode. Then you might hit "w" to put it into select word mode. Then you could use the mouse to select the text you wanted. Then you would hit an accept button on the mouse to confirm the action. Compare this verb-noun approach to the noun-verb approach we use today, where we simply move the mouse to the right place, select the text (ie the noun), and then hit delete. Much simpler, less error-prone, and fewer clicks. I also liked Larry's takeaw...

This problem needs a higher pagerank, so I figured I would post the solution here. If your Toyota Camry trunk won't open, one possible reason is that it is set to valet mode. Valet mode means that you cannot open the trunk using the release lever inside the car. To set valet mode, you put the key into the trunk lock and turn it counterclockwise. You will know that your trunk is in valet mode if the lock is horizontal rather than vertical, and if you cannot open the trunk using the lever near the driver's seat. Of course, a problem is that sometimes the Camry can get stuck in valet mode, such that you can't use your key to get out of it. (You can see how I spent part of my Sunday morning ...) The solution turns out to be WD-40 . Spray some WD-40 on your key and on the lock. Put the key in, and jiggle it around, and happiness ensues. From an interaction design perspective, it sort of makes sense to have a valet mode. After all, the point of having a valet key is to limit the...

Like many others, my NCAA bracket went terribly awry this year and I have no teams in the Final Four. However, it did make me think that this is a really interesting failure of wisdom of crowds. According to ESPN : More than 5.9 million brackets were filled out for ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge, but exactly two went 4-for-4 in picking Final Four teams. Only 1,093 brackets had three of the Final Four correct, while 2.1 percent had two right. A total of 27.6 percent had one Final Four team, while the vast majority of you -- 70.3 percent -- don't have a single team left.

I saw this on a CMU website called Death Risk Rankings . The site " Calculates the risk of dying in the next year using MicroMorts (a one-in-a-million chance of dying). "

Well-known security researcher Peter Gutmann has a draft of his book on Engineering Security available on his web page. He has a lot of good commentary about challenges that the security community is facing. So far, my favorite passage challenges the common mentality that security has to be 100% or it's just not worth having. Engineering an effective security solution in the presence of security geeks is an extremely difficult problem... Consider as an example of this a world where no-one ever locks their front door when they leave the house, and someone suggests that fitting locks and actually using them might help in dealing with the spate of burglaries that have occurred recently. This would be totally unworkable. If you lost your key you’d be unable to get into your own house. Conversely, anyone who found it or stole it could now get in. For a house with multiple occupants you’d need to get a new key cut for everyone in the house, including any temporary guests who were st...

Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things. The scary thing is that things are starting to be against the natural order for me now.

I read a lot of my wife's Chemical Engineering magazines, I find it really fascinating to learn about their values, debates, methods, tools, and culture. I found this article especially useful, an article by someone at the US Department of State as to how the US visa system works, why people are rejected (apparently 3/4 of visa applications are approved), and how best to prepare for a visa application. Very useful. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/government/89/8901gov3.html

My old high school, the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Math (SCGSSM), sent out a survey to understand what it would take to get more of its alumni to live and work in the state. I think there are a lot of serious structural issues with SC that make it virtually impossible for me to live there. To a large extent, SCGSSM is a victim of its own success . Here, we have a fantastic, top-caliber high school that has trained scholars who can operate on the world stage. In my graduating class, there is a speechwriter for a politician, several lawyers, multiple doctors, and a large number of teachers. The problem is that many of these top-notch jobs simply aren't in SC . SC doesn't have a thriving high-tech, biotech, financial, or engineering base. It's simply dominated by Atlanta to the west, and North Carolina to the north. The same is true for its universities. God bless Clemson's football team, but the universities in SC can't compete at the intern...